What Are Smart Plugs and How To Use Them Creatively

By Bernee on 05/26/2017

For those of you that’s not much of a techie like myself, the term ‘smart home applications’ might sound intimidating as it often refer to expensive, sensitive devices that’s really complicated to get it setup. Recently, due to my work requirement, I got my hands on a couple of our latest developed smart plugs and outlets, contrary to my previous prejudice, the smart plug are rather easy to setup; the usability and simplicity is much more than I have expected it will be.

Okay, let’s first have a more clear understanding about what smart plugs are and what are they made for. Just like the ordinary plug inside your home, smart plug sits on your wall socket; in some way, it is like an outlet extension that you plug your lamp or other electronic devices. By simply connect the smart plug to your home Wi-Fi, activate and band with either a home smart hub or a specified mobile app and Woola! You’re done!

The benefit of smart plug is that after it’s been connected with your home’s Wi-Fi network, you can control using your smartphone even when you’re not around in the house, which (distant control via smartphone) is never achievable with ordinary wall socket. If fact, when searching on some of the famous shopping site such as Amazon and Ebay, you can notice that the sale of these types of product is rather high, that is because the price of these smart plugs is significantly lower than most of the smart electronic applications, the main concept about smart plug is that you can transform/upgrade your existing home applications to something that ‘understands’ you with just one little device rather than having to invest all your saving onto those overcharged smart home applications.

Here are some of the things that can be achievable by your existing home applications after it’s been connected with smart plug.

- Use your smartphone to turn on/off your light and other electronic application that’s connected to the smart plug.

- Schedule the operation time of your home applications to automatically turns on and off based on your operating habits.

- Turn on the lights randomly with your smartphone when the house is empty to add extra security protection from burglars.

Control the lighting around your house

Plug your floor or table lamp in the smart plug so that you can turn on/off the light without having to go all the way across the room to reach the switch. This function is also useful when it comes to security purposes, if you are out of town for a few days and there happened to be no one around to watch your house or in another case you live alone; you can turn on the light remotely with your smartphone to make potential ‘bad intension guy’ think that someone is at home and they better not pick you as a target.

Want a cup of fresh coffee when you wake up in the morning but always wake up 10 minutes late and ended up with a Starbucks coffee that’s around your workplace? With a smart plug, you can schedule your coffeemaker/brewer to turn on at your preset - time, this will save you all the troublesome morning routine. This is so convenient that I have one smart plug that’s ‘coffeemaker only’, try it once and can’t go without anymore, along with Greek yogurt and cashew butter.

I believe we all had times when we forget to turn off an operating device before leaving the house – bad times. No one wants to spend the entire day worrying about if they’ll burn their house down or how much the electric will cost (especially space heater, that thing burn your electric bill like Cersei burn down the Red Keep). For this kind of situation, a smart plug is like a lifesaver, your abuela who’s always in the house to save the day. Like I said before, you can always turn it off wherever you are as long as the smart plug is connecting to your Wi-Fi.

No more overcooked food in your crock pot

For the busy bees, crock pot is like an essential kitchenware if you want to eat home-cooked meal. Many people like to leave their crock pot on for the day when they’re away from home since they’re a slow cooker that will less likely post over-heating treat. A smart plug allows you to set the time so that the food is not overcook nor semi-cooked, just make sure that you got home on time before the hot meal turned into cold dish.

There are still a lot of things you can make used of from the smart plug. I’m recently working on a new post that will list out how smart plug will help you when it comes to parenting. To get more information and update on the latest lighting and home innovation or remodeling, stay tune to our site and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.